A plastic straw is typically used for only about 20 minutes; then it lives for some 200 years, leaching chemicals into a landfill and polluting waterways and oceans.

The plastic straw is at the heart of the growing environmental campaign to reduce plastic consumption in hopes of saving the oceans from chemical and physical effects of single-use plastics on marine and human life.

In Tucson, restaurants like Hotel Congress and Maynards Market are giving plastic straws to customers only on request. They are part of the national #stopsucking campaign among restaurants.